So Many Talented Women

Last night, students shuffled in and out of the audition room for a production I’m working on, frantically asking about pronunciation and deciding whether to use or ignore the chairs we’d provided them. Between one audition and the next, after we’d seen about 15 people, my male professor turned to me and whispered “there are so many good girls.” Less than 20 minutes and 10 more auditions into the night, another man working on the show turned to me and said the same thing.

In the audition rooms I’ve been in over the last four years, the number of women auditioners is almost always double the number of men, and women are competing for far fewer roles. More often than not, the shows done on my college’s mainstage feature predominantly …

The Mannequin Does Not Control Us

The mannequin has been a popular topic for debate for years, but has recently reached the headlines once again. Specifically, Topshop stores across the UK are under scrutiny for mannequins that appear “too thin.” However, while it’s easy to point fingers, I believe the true problem runs much deeper than any store or single corporation.

The mannequin can never be defined as an ideal representation of a woman’s body because no mannequin can represent all women. That’s the beauty of being human: we can’t be summarized by one shape. I was lucky enough to have been taught growing up that I didn’t have to look like the Barrie dolls I owned, that Barbie isn’t real but a toy. My body doesn’t look like that because I’m a human and I’m …

An Interview with Peta Lindsay

Over the past few months, we have been inundated with news about Obama and Romney — especially about their policies in terms of women. But did you know that there’s a woman running for president? You may not have heard of her, but Peta Lindsay is the 2012 presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

According to the PSL website, Lindsay is a 2008 graduate of Howard University and currently lives in Los Angeles where she remains a leader and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in education from the University of Southern California with the goal of becoming a public school teacher. She has represented the U.S. anti-war movement and the Party for Socialism and Liberation at important conferences and mass gatherings across the globe. For …

Who (Doesn’t) Run The World? Girls.

Only 20% of political leaders in the world are women. Women leaders are under-represented in every country, from Nepal, where my organization works, to the United States, where only 17% of Congress is female. In 2010, I co-founded a leadership development organization for young women in Kathmandu, Nepal, because I strongly believe that the lack of female leaders is one of the most enduring forms of inequality in the 21st century.

Women are absent in corporate boardrooms, parliaments, peace negotiating tables and almost all major institutions around the world. For every Hillary Clinton and Marissa Mayer, there are thousands of women who do not break the glass ceiling.

While women are shut out of the institutions of power, they often face the brunt of poverty and violence. In Nepal, 1/3 …

Ladies Abound On The Small Screen–But Not Behind It

Mindy Kaling, breakout star of the Emmy-winning TV show, The Office, garners a lot of attention for her wit and comedic timing as Kelly Kapoor, Dunder Mifflin’s token mean girl and general hot mess. Eventually, Kaling became the only female writer on the hit NBC series, writing and directing numerous episodes before ultimately being promoted to Executive Producer. This season, FOX gave Kaling a seven-figure deal to create her own pilot. The Mindy Project, which premiered on September 25th, is an ingenious blend of Kaling’s typical humor: girly naïveté mixed with feminism, a different take on the modern woman looking for love.

In an interview with New York Magazine, Kevin Reilly, an executive at FOX, said of Kaling: “She has a very contemporary voice. She’s really smart about how open …

Saturday Vids: Obama at Barnard

Saturday Vids: Women, War and Peace

Starting on October 11th, PBS launched a fascinating 5-part mini-series entitled "Women, War and Peace." As they describe it: "Women, War & Peace challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men's domain. The five-part series reveals that women have become primary targets in today's armed conflicts and are suffering unprecedented casualties; yet, they are simultaneously emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict."
Check out the trailer (embedded below). The full versions of the five episodes can be found here.

Why Do We Still Need International Women’s Day?

A week ago today (March 8th), countries around the world celebrated the hundredth anniversary of International Women’s Day. But surely, one hundred years after its conception, women don’t need their own special day anymore? What about an International Men’s Day, hmm?

The answer is that the 364 other days of the year belong to men. It’s more important than ever that a day specifically for women is celebrated: to see how far we have come, and to see how far we have to go.

No one can deny that in one hundred years, huge amounts have been achieved. When I woke up on Tuesday, I was proud to be an independent woman, able to live, work and travel freely, able to study at a university and be awarded a degree …